Comment on article "Checklist of compiled sources..."

You added this to the bottom of the England page, under a heading about finding English immigrant ancestry abroad. I like the idea of a link like this. It would be great to put something similar to it on the Ireland page. I'll have to put it on our list of items to prioritize. Anne 17:59, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

County Pages for England's counties probably already exist.

The associated county pages for each county may already exist. Take a look at the England portal for links to them. Apparently that may be the reason why the links are red on the England Barn Raising Tasks page, and if the articles do exist, that might save you and your team a bit of time getting things ready. JamesAnderson 00:00, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

We need your opinion

In order to help the community arrive at consensus on some issues impacting most of the pages on FamilySearch Wiki, I'd like to invite you to add your opinions to the following discussions:

What's your best work? And your favorites from others?

Hey there Alan! I'm searching for the wiki's best content to highlight it during a presentation I'm doing soon. Will you link me to the 2 or 3 articles you've contributed to that you are most pleased with? Also, could you link me to your favorite article(s) written by others? Thanks! Ritcheymt 17:06, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Where should wikiproject contributors communicate?

People who work on writing projects on the wiki are asking for an online venue they can use to talk about...

Please vote on new name for Reviewer role

The wiki community is voting on a proposed renaming of the Reviewer role so that we can give the role to anyone we trust to upload their own images without review. If you care about the name of this role, please discuss the issue and cast your vote at FamilySearch Wiki talk:Reviewer. Ritcheymt 16:43, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. If you need help, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Again, welcome!

Please vote on search result title link color

Some users have reported that the red color of the article title links in search results are confusing because in a Mediawiki site, a red link means a link to a page that has no content. There is a poll on the forums as to whether to make the links blue instead, which would also conform to what Google and Bing do. Please read the thread/explanation and vote. RitcheyMT 16:13, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

QR codes: One directing people to Wiki main page

Alan, good to see you tonight at the Wiki pioneers dinner. Mentioned I had gneerated a QR code for the main page of the FamilySearch Wiki and got it into the files section of the site, ready for anyone to use as they needed to. Here's a direct link to the file.

If you start a new line of text with a space, like this one, the text will be surrounded by a box.
If you continue with more text, again starting with a space,
then each line will grouped together in the box
and it means that you can preserve line breaks without using code.

Start another line with no leading space and you're back to normal.

If you want to indent a line, start the line with a colon : --Steve 18:14, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Steve, thank you for your help. However, I don't understand the wikitext feature link. It says that a leading space preserves format. You are saying that a leading space inserts a box. This seems to be a contradiction. My problem, however, is that whenever I edit a page, a leading space is automatically inserted following each time I have pressed <enter>. It is not there when I click save, but when I view the edited page, new boxes appear that weren't there when I edited. I go back, and sure enough there are leading spaces that weren't there when I pressed save. It also inserts the following that wasn't there when I hit save:

<br> <br>

I find myself unable to fix unwanted boxes and excessive spacing, because the wiki is inserting random stuff all over after I press save. Any guidance?

My recommendation is that you switch to wikitext before saving a page. Then you can see the code that the rich text editor has inserted/added. Yes a leading space is one way to preserve formatting. It does this and also surrounds these lines with a box. (see Limiting formatting/escaping wiki markup) --Steve

I have been in wikitext before saving. The spaces and code I referred to are inserted when I press save -- they are not there in the wikitext before pressing save. I think it may have to do with the browser I am using. I cannot use either FireFox nor IE, as they both have major flaws when I try to use them. Perhaps this insertion of unwanted code is a flaw that occurs with Opera.Alan 15:57, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

It just did it again. I didn't touch anything above this, but it inserted boxes and blank lines in things I hadn't edited when I saved the preceding comment. I usually hit wikitext immediately after pressing edit when the rich text editor appears and do everything in wikitext. Maybe I should "disable rich editor?"Alan 16:01, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Hi Alan, maybe you've hit on the problem. Maybe it's the browser or a browser add-in. Maybe it's your computer - you say the other browsers have flaws, have you considered that the source of the problem is the computer. Have you tried editing pages using a Opera on a different computer, or editing a page using Firefox or IE on a different computer. Trying different combinations of these and look at the results. What I am pretty sure is that it is not the wiki software itself, but how these (your computer and browsers) are interacting with it. --Steve 16:21, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

OK. Disabling rich editor helps but doesn't resolve the problem totally. I can edit with FireFox from another computer just fine. FireFox will not run on my computer--it just hangs, even after removal and reinstall. IE creates a problem with the system clock and causes all timed application (like Outlook) to break down. Chrome has trouble with Java, and a lot of FamilySearch is java-based. So I use Opera.Alan 19:31, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Hi Alan, If Opera is your preferred browser, have you tried using this on a different computer, just to check whether the browser on it's own is the cause of the problem you are having. It would help to install any browser add-ins that you have on your main computer. If that passes the test, can you think of anything that changed on your system before these problems started happening or has this issue been present for a long time? I think you need to raise this issue with the wiki engineers if you haven't already. --Steve 16:39, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Table help needed

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I have created a table over at Kilnasoolagh, Clare parish. I want to make adjustments to the table, but contributor help hasn't touched on what I need. What I want to do is make the second and fourth columns a little bit wider (so they don't break to a second line) and the first column correspondingly narrower (since it already breaks to a second line). I can't find how to change individual column widths, only total width and # of columns.

Second, I need to insert a similar table (each of which might need either more or fewer rows) into more than a thousand pages for Ireland parishes. I would guess a template and/or infobox would be appropriate, but have no idea how to go about that. Another example is Kilmaleery, Clare parish. Any help available? --Alan 17:31, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

On the issue of repeating a similar table in many pages, the way I see it you have two choices, and it's really down to your preference which one to use.

Develop a template with parameters that you can use on multi-pages but define different values for the parameters for each instance.

Develop a template and then Substitute this into each page as required, so that the basic code structure is editable in the page for you to add the details.

Reply to this message if you would like further help and/or advice about these options. --Steve(talk| contribs) 13:47, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Help me create template

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I'm thinking that substitution would be the better of the two, but what I really need is probably something else. I have a spreadsheet with data. I was going to use a template to create a table, then have typists input the data from the spreadsheet into the table, but this introduces the possibility of copying/transcription errors. Perhaps we could use the parsing to a template (Help:Templates has a link to Help:Parser functions in templates, but no such page exists).

The general layout of the spreadsheet file is this:

Column

content of column

A

name of parish

B&C

film # for tithes; year tithe data gathered

D&E

film # for Primary Valuation; year PV data gathered

F

Volume of PV book, if available in book form

G&H

film #(s) for Revisions & Cancellation; years gathered

I&J

film #(s) for House Books; year(s) gathered

K&L

film #(s) for Field Books; year(s) gathered

M&N

film #'s for Perambulation Books; year(s) gathered

O

comments about any of above with a letter (e.g., H:) designating which type of record the comment applies to

The first column of the spreadsheet (parish name) tells us which wiki page to insert that row of the table into (e.g., Kilnasoolagh would be in the first column in the spreadsheet titled CLARE.xlsx, which means the page title (and appropriate section thereon) is Kilnasoolagh_Civil_Parish,_County_Clare#Tax_records.

What would be reasonable to try to do? The spreadsheets (one for each county) are enormous. I estimate there are around 6000 parishes. --— Preceding unsigned comment added by MannAE (talk | contribs) 22:00, December 15, 2011 (UTC)

Hi Alan, first I have added details for the missing article Help:Parser functions in templates. Thanks for pointing this out (that it was missing). With the further information you provided my suggestion to you would be to use the spreadsheet to build the code for the tables directly rather than creating code for the template in the wiki and then adding the specific details manually. Your spreadsheet layout provides information for 15 columns of data. You could use column 16 to construct the needed code, using spreadsheet formulas to pull in the details from the other columns.

For example, if I was writing the formula in MS Excel with the data starting in cell A2 (assuming there is a header row), based on the table from Kilnasoolagh Civil Parish, County Clare the formula would be

Using a formula like this to create the code for the tables would in my opinion cut down on the effort required to publish these in the wiki as one the code is created by the formula one edit per page would be enough to have them in place. --Steve(talk| contribs) 14:23, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Template Documentation

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I've created a template for parish level sections relating to British Census Records (Template:British Census) which actually works! Now, I want to create documentation and I'm unsure how to proceed. I don't know why, but the Help content relating to template documentation doesn't make sense to me. What is the proper title and format for template documentation and what ties it to the template? Alan 21:29, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Alan, I have added a new section to Help:Templates#Documentation, this explains how to use the "noinclude" tags or the {{documentation}} template to add information about what the template is for and how it can be used. If you want to use the template, visit that page and read it's own documentation about how it can be used. --Steve(talk| contribs) 21:38, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Alan I believe that you created the template originally. I have noticed that the template "British Census" is being put on every parish page. Since I did not like the format of it I created 2 other census templates that add additional parameters. The templates is "Suffolk Census" and "British Census2" It has to be remembered that these templates are drafts and subject to change. I would question putting the template "British Census" on every page because if one parameter changes in the template every page will have to be visited again to make that unique change. It is poor judgement to think that every parish page in England needs this template. I had Steve take the time to put a link on every parish page in Suffolk to the Suffolk Census page. Now most of those links are gone, replace with this template. I do not think that the 500 parish pages in Suffolk need a link to ancestry.com, findmypast.com and the other websites. There are pages created specifically that talk about these websites and it is easy to link to those pages. From what I see someone plans to put this specific template on the 10,000 parish page in England. I'm not going to go around changing that template, but if I am working on a specific parish, I will change that template to another one, those mentioned above or another one.Donjgen 23:15, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Hi Don, part of the reason for doing a template is that it makes it so the contributor can use it on many pages, but make a change in one place that automatically changes all the pages that use that template. The rationale behind placing the census template on every parish page was that we don't know how a person gets to a specific parish's census topic, so we would like to help the patron know where to find the census even if they went straight to the parish page without reading anything at the county or national page. To do this, we either need a link to a county census page or national census page that has the information about how to access the census, or we need a template that places census access information on each parish's census section. Either would work, but it was done the way it was. If you feel it should be a template that inserts a link to a county or national census page rather than a template that places the full information on each parish page, you should bring that up in community meeting. Perhaps it would be better as a link--I'm undecided and willing to go along with a community consensus. I wasn't the one putting the template on all the Suffolk pages, I only helped create the template. Please don't replace the text that calls the template. Instead, suggest changing the template to what you think it should be.

TNA moved to NA of the United Kingdom

Thank you for your expertise and action in redirecting the article to it's rightful place. You, MannAE, are most appreciated! Thank you again for your help.

England Parish Histories

2012 was a good year for the Suffolk Parish pages. There have been a few instances where volunteers have sought to tear down what I have built rather than improve it. What volunteers I have come across have no interest in collaborating, rather they have an agenda of copying and pasting similar dialogue on every page. What they are copying and pasting is rather weak material. Parish History Section - I cannot accept that a short one or two sentences with a link to a gazetteer should be in anyway be considered a parish history. The approach to the Parish History Section is very simple. Enter websites, links and references in the body of the page and once a sufficient amount of material has been found, then a history can be written based on those sources from a genealogist perspective. A new wiki article should be created, England - Writing a Parish History. This short gazetteer entry currently being introduced should be moved or put in the Maps and Gazetteers Section. Pertaining to Suffolk pages I noticed recently that someone is entering those gazetteer entries again and at the same time removing the link to the Suffolk Gazetteer page. Could you use the text replace function to place a link to the Suffolk Gazetteer page in the Maps and Gazetteer section for every parish in Suffolk? Donjgen 18:36, 26 December 2012 (UTC) I'll also place a copy of this over on User talk:Cottrells page.

Template:British Census

Hi, it looks like you've had some help from Steve with templates. I'm seeing a lot of pages with the above template on it and it's in a blue box as if there were a leading space in it. Could you look at it and see if it can be fixed? Thanks! averyld 15:29, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Kent Parishes

Alan, would you look at the talk page forKent Parishes? There's an issue there that's been there for quite awhile and Nathan Murphy said you're trying to get some of these issues resolved. Would you let me know if any progress is being made? By the way, your workshop on Searches at RootsTech was wonderful! averyld 17:31, 10 April 2013 (UTC)